....shed, continued

I am so thrilled to have my very first drawn illustration in the current issue of UPPERCASE Magazine!

I drew this on Thanksgiving, 2017. We decided to stay home and celebrate, just the three of us. I wanted my daughter to feel like that even though we weren't going anywhere, it was going to be a special day. So, I let her pick the drinks!

I'm trying to enjoy the quiet stillness of winter. We've had lots of snow (and snow days) and rain, which has made for long weeks of nasty weather. I'm drawing daily and I can see myself steadily improving.

Winter is not my favorite season. It's cold, it's dark, it's icy....but with those restrictions comes permission to quiet your mind, think, make. It's the season when I have the most time. My daughter is in preschool, and farmers' markets are few and far between. It allows me to focus on my art and on all the other little projects that I think about during the summer. This year I'm stretching and taking Make Art That Sells, an online course from art agent Lilla Rogers. So far, I feel out of my element, which I'm taking as a good sign. Growth comes in fits and starts, and it isn't always comfortable.

I'm getting ready for the upcoming holiday season! I'll be at the Bennington Farmers' Market on the first and third Saturdays of Nov. and Dec., and I'll be at the Williamstown Berkshire Grown Markets on Nov. 19th and Dec. 17th. I'll have lots of lovely linen aprons and tea towels, and delicious edibles, perfect for gift giving or enjoying with your family and friends. See you soon!

I challenged myself again this year to participate in Inktober. It's an Instagram challenge where you post something drawn or painted with ink every day of October. You can make it as limiting or free as you'd like, and there's even a prompt list if you prefer to follow that. I decided I would work on patterns as a continuation of my recent Sketchbook Skool class with Ohn Mar Win. (I also wanted to practice drawing/painting people, but I enjoyed and got wrapped up with the patterns!) You can head over to Instagram to see the whole month!

I've been playing with the idea of home for many years now. For a while, I tried to convey this in a nonliteral way, but lately all I want to draw are tiny houses! And they make me happy, so I've allowed myself to do so.

Well, I've been busy with life, baking, and painting. After a many year hiatus, I'm making stuff again! It feels great to play around with long-forgotten supplies and skills. Check out my instagram to see the latest.

....shed, continued

We don’t do things the easy way---ever. Most of you know us well enough that this statement needs no explanation, but for those of you who don’t, I will enlight you. The ceiling that will go up in our living room/dining room is maple---3” pieces of maple that were rough-cut, meaning that they had to be sanded. Matt spent his whole summer sanding each piece, and I have to say, they are beautiful after the sanding, and then of course, the coat of clear polyurethane that I am working on applying. We just bought a fully assembled shed from the Jamaica Cottage Shop, which I talked Matt into buying instead of the kit, luckily. It came unfinished, only needing a shiny new coat of paint. We chose a coppery-red and light gray in a thick outdoor latex. The unfortunate thing is that the wood was very rough and soaked up lots of paint and the board-and-batten pattern proved much harder to paint than we thought. Add into the mix a couple of windows and the trim, and nearly 40 hours later, we were finished. It is a beautiful little building, though.